Prevalence of cytomegalovirus antibodies in blood donors in ziguinchor

Introduction: The human cytomegalovirus (CMV) is a virus belonging to the herpes virus family. It causes latent and persistent infections and may be responsible for morbidity and mortality in immunocompromised and newborn infants. The objective of this study is to determine its prevalence among our blood donors. Patients and methods: Prospective cross-sectional study conducted from November 2019 to February 2020. All donors were screened for CMV and other routine tests (HIV, hepatitis B and C, syphilis). The fisher test was used to analyse the data and we considered a threshold p < 0.05 to be significant. Results: Out of a total number of 121 donors, 89.3% (n=108) are male and 10.7% (n=13) are female (sex ratio= 8.3). The average age of the donors was 32.57 years (extremes of 18 to 57 years). Older donors represented 45.5% (n=55) versus 54.5% (n=66) of new donors. The prevalence of CMV was 43.8% (n=53), HIV prevalence was 0.8% (n=1, HIV profile 1), and hepatitis B prevalence was 11.6% (n=14). For hepatitis C and syphilis no donors were tested positive. There was no significant difference between CMV seroprevalence and sex (p=0.314) or status (p=0.09).